What's up in emerging technology

What's up in emerging technology

October 26, 2017

Could We Build a Machine with Consciousness?

Not quite yet, but neuroscience research is giving us some clues about how it may be possible in the not-too-distant future.

In a paper published in Science today, a trio of neuroscientists, led by Stanislas Dehaene from Collège de France in Paris, try to pin down exactly what we mean by “consciousness” in order to work out whether machines could ever possess it. As they see it, there are three kinds of consciousness—and computers have so far mastered only one of them.

One is subconsciousness, the huge range of processes in the brain where most human intelligence lies. That's what powers our ability to, say, determine a chess move or spot a face without really knowing how we did it. That, the researchers say, is broadly comparable to the kind of processing that modern-day AIs, such as DeepMind’s AlphaGo or Face++’s facial recognition algorithms, are good at.

When it comes to actual consciousness, the team splits it into two distinct types. The first is the way we maintain a huge range of thoughts at once, all accessible to other parts of the brain, making abilities like long-term planning possible. The second is an ability to obtain and process information about ourselves, which allows us to do things like reflect on mistakes. These two forms of consciousness, say the researchers, are yet to be present in machine learning.

But glimmers are beginning to emerge in some avenues of research. Last year, for instance, DeepMind developed a deep-learning system that can keep some data on hand for use during its ruminations, which is a step toward global information availability. And the adversarial neural networks dreamed up by Ian Goodfellow (one of our 35 Innovators Under 35 of 2017), which can evaluate whether AI-generated data is realistic, are headed in the direction of self-awareness.

Those are, admittedly, small advances toward the kinds of processes that the researchers say would give rise to human consciousness. But if a machine could be endowed with more functional versions, conclude the researchers, it “would behave as though it were conscious ... it would know that it is seeing something, would express confidence in it, would report it to others ... and may even experience the same perceptual illusions as humans.”

The race to map the world for autonomous cars is on—and messy

Automakers and tech firms want high-definition maps to help robo-cars drive, but the best way to build them remains unclear. So says a new report from Bloomberg.

Two approaches: “One aims to create complete high-definition maps that will let the driverless… Read more

Automakers and tech firms want high-definition maps to help robo-cars drive, but the best way to build them remains unclear. So says a new report from Bloomberg.

Two approaches: “One aims to create complete high-definition maps that will let the driverless cars of the future navigate all on their own,” explains Bloomberg. “Another creates maps piece-by-piece, using sensors in today’s vehicles.”

But: Those approaches contain scope to do things differently. “Every self-driving map looks different because each one depends on the sensor system of the vehicle that creates it,” says Bloomberg.

Many players: Waymo is thought to be leading the way, but other firms—including Mobileye, Tesla, and TomTom—are in the scrum. Plus, says Bloomberg, a “slew” of startups are “taking different stabs at the problem, each gobbling up venture capital.” All use subtly different approaches.

Winner takes all? Andreessen-Horowitz partner Benedict Evans says these maps have a network effect: a bigger fleet of cars using one type of maps will get better, more regularly updated maps faster than a smaller one would. So there’s plenty to play for.

DNA-tuned diets don’t seem to work

Attempts to lose weight more effectively by choosing food tailored to your genes may be a fruitless endeavor. So says an $8 million study into the concept.

The news:The study assigned 609 people to low-fat or low-carb diets. Analysis of whether those… Read more

Attempts to lose weight more effectively by choosing food tailored to your genes may be a fruitless endeavor. So says an $8 million study into the concept.

The news:The study assigned 609 people to low-fat or low-carb diets. Analysis of whether those diets “matched” or “clashed” with a person’s supposed genetic predispositions showed no evidence that people on the “correct” diet lost more weight than others.

Dashed hopes: A smaller study by the same team in 2010 suggested DNA-tuned diets did work better than regular ones. But this larger, more powerful experiment suggests it may’ve been a false alert. “Let’s cut to the chase,” said Christopher Gardner, a coauthor of the study, to Stat. “We didn’t replicate that study; we didn’t even come close. This didn’t work.”

Editor's Pick

10 Breakthrough Technologies 2018

Every year since 2001 we’ve picked what we call the 10 Breakthrough Technologies. People often ask, what exactly do you mean by “breakthrough”? It’s a reasonable question—some of our picks haven’t yet reached widespread use, while others may be on the...

Every year since 2001 we’ve picked what we call the 10 Breakthrough Technologies. People often ask, what exactly do you mean by “breakthrough”? It’s a reasonable question—some of our picks haven’t yet reached widespread use, while others may be on the cusp of becoming commercially available. What we’re really looking for is a technology, or perhaps even a collection of technologies, that will have a profound effect on our lives.

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February 20, 2018

Facebook has been sharing user data with Stanford to study US inequality

The social network is working with economists to throw light on America’s widening income gap.

The news: Politico reports that Facebook is sharing data with Stanford economist Raj Chetty and his researchers. Facebook confirmed the partnership to Politico… Read more

The social network is working with economists to throw light on America’s widening income gap.

The news: Politico reports that Facebook is sharing data with Stanford economist Raj Chetty and his researchers. Facebook confirmed the partnership to Politico, while Chetty said he’s “using social networks, and measuring interactions there, to understand the role of social capital.”

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North Korea’s hacking abilities are even stronger than we thought

Pyongyang has a surprisingly powerful cyber-espionage team at its disposal, according to a new report.

The news: Security researchers at FireEye have published research describing a hacking group called APT37, or Reaper. FireEye says that there is “high… Read more

Pyongyang has a surprisingly powerful cyber-espionage team at its disposal, according to a new report.

The news: Security researchers at FireEye have published research describing a hacking group called APT37, or Reaper. FireEye says that there is “high confidence that [its] activity is carried out on behalf of the North Korean government.”

What it does: Cyber-espionage, mainly to steal industrial secrets—details about electronics, manufacturing, aerospace, cars, you name it. When it started in 2012, it largely targeted South Korea, but it recently turned its attention to Japan, Vietnam, and the Middle East.

The tricks:Wired has a nice rundown on its techniques, explaining that Reaper has “planted custom-coded malware on victims’ computers capable of everything from eavesdropping via an infected PC’s microphone to data-wiping attacks.”

Why it matters: North Korea is usually considered a scrappy, if aggressive, underdog. The news suggests its capabilities are even stronger than previously predicted.

Our love of batteries is powering a boom in exploitative cobalt mines

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, some mines known to use child labor are benefiting from the electrification of our economy.

Backstory: The world wants lithium-ion batteries. But one of their key ingredients, cobalt, is in short supply. That makes… Read more

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, some mines known to use child labor are benefiting from the electrification of our economy.

Backstory: The world wants lithium-ion batteries. But one of their key ingredients, cobalt, is in short supply. That makes prices high, meaning people will go to great lengths to unearth it.

The news:Bloomberg reports that production in “artisanal” mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo has increased by 50 percent in the last year. Don’t be fooled by the name. As we’ve explained, these mines are dangerous, and some even exploit child labor.

This video game wants to be a fake-news vaccine

By building up pretend propaganda empires, can we learn how news is weaponized against us?

The game: Players of the new video game Bad News, which has been built by a team of academics and journalists, must win social-media fans, bend the truth, and… Read more

By building up pretend propaganda empires, can we learn how news is weaponized against us?

The game: Players of the new video game Bad News, which has been built by a team of academics and journalists, must win social-media fans, bend the truth, and divide nations, all while attempting to maintain credibility among their readers. It’s free to play; give it a try.

The goal: “Once you’ve seen the tactics, and used them in the game, you build up resistance,” Sander van der Linden, one of the academics involved inthe project, told the Guardian. “We want the public to learn what these people are doing by walking in their shoes.”

And more seriously: The game is also a research project. Data about how people play and react to their successes may inspire new ways to help researchers fight fake news in the future. And don’t we need ’em.

Editor's Pick

A smarter smart city

On Toronto’s waterfront, where the eastern part of the city meets Lake Ontario, is a patchwork of cement and dirt. It’s home to plumbing and electrical supply shops, parking lots, winter boat storage, and a hulking silo built in 1943 to store soybeans—a...

On Toronto’s waterfront, where the eastern part of the city meets Lake Ontario, is a patchwork of cement and dirt. It’s home to plumbing and electrical supply shops, parking lots, winter boat storage, and a hulking silo built in 1943 to store soybeans—a relic of the area’s history as a shipping port.

SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket could help humans mine more asteroids

The world’s most powerful rocket may be good for more commercial missions than Mars supply trips. One astronomer says it could open access to lots of asteroids on which humans could strike it rich mining metals.

The world’s most powerful rocket may be good for more commercial missions than Mars supply trips. One astronomer says it could open access to lots of asteroids on which humans could strike it rich mining metals.

Backstory: Earlier this month, SpaceX successfully launched its Falcon Heavy rocket. It’s twice as powerful, and costs a quarter as much to launch, as its closest competitor, Delta IV Heavy.

What’s new: Falcon Heavy’s power could get humans to more asteroids to tap them for supplies. In fact, reports Gizmodo, Martin Elvis from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics predicts it could increase the number of viable asteroids by a factor of 15. That could, theoretically, be worth tens of billions of dollars if the rocks contain, say, platinum.

Why it matters: Add space prospectors to the list of people who could help SpaceX profit massively from its lead in commercial spaceflight. Tellingly, Quartz notes that China and Europe have huge respect for what SpaceX has achieved with Falcon Heavy and acknowledge that they’re years away from such a feat.

Permission to excavate in the city could be a first step to building an East Coast Hyperloop—or just an expensive folly.

Backstory: Last July, Musk announced “verbal government approval” for an underground Hyperloop between New York City and Washington, DC. Some folks scoffed, arguing that metropolitan planning doesn’t really work via verbal agreements.

What’s new: The Washington Post reports that his tunneling startup, the Boring Company, has now received an “early, and vague, building permit” from Washington, DC. The permit allows it to do some excavation experimentation in a parking lot in the NoMa area of the city. (Similar tests are under way beneath SpaceX HQ in California.)

But: There are no details about how far or deep a tunnel might stretch, or for how long experimentation can last. And while Musk insists such tunnels are the solution to congested streets, transport experts aren’t convinced. He may get a tunnel in DC, but an East Coast Hyperloop is quite another thing.